22-February-2003
Engine Tear-Down, Finally!
My stepdad finally got a few rebuilt Saab V4 engines out to customers, so we had room to take on the great Fiat Twin Cam Engine Tear-Down party. While he searched for the special twin cam mounting plate (for the engine stand) I started disassembling some cylinder heads. It went smooth enough, and we ended up with a good head and a full set of good valves.
We never did find the mounting plate for the engine stand, so we just muscled the 1,608cc block around on a bench. In less than 30 minutes of gentle work, we had an excellent bare block. After measuring all the criticals, we found zero cylinder wall taper, the crank was in spec, and the pistons were in fine shape. No major machine work needed for the block it looks like.
The block and head are off to our local machine shop to get tanked and cleaned up. We're going to do a basic valve job on the head, check the guides, and I'll look at port matching the intake and exhaust ports per SCCA CSP rules.
In the meantime, I'll continue to do body work on the Fiat, getting it ready for a visit to the paint shop. Earlier, I was deciding on what color to paint it. Should I keep it the original baby blue? Or perhaps go white with some fun green and red racing stripes? Hhhhmmm. I'm starting to think a fun late 1960s bright orange would look really good on this early car. Luckily, I still have some time to decide.
 P1010001.JPG Cylinder Head on the Bench |
 P1010002.JPG Cam Covers off Cylinder Head |
 P1010003.JPG Intake Camshaft |
 P1010004.JPG Cylinder Head Before Disassembly |
 P1010005.JPG Ditto, with Intake Manifold Attached |
 P1010006.JPG Cam Towers off, Shim Buckets Shown |
 P1010007.JPG Ditto |
 P1010008.JPG Mr. A getting Loose on the Block |
 P1010009.JPG A Large Pile of Crap |
